Hayden's Gateway Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, one of the best-known hotels in the west of Ireland, was fined a total of €7,500 yesterday for breaches of good hygiene regulations.
Ms Maire Deeley, an environmental health officer with the Western Health Board, told Ballinasloe District Court that she had found "deplorable standards" in the kitchen and food-storage areas of the hotel during an inspection on April 4th this year.
Ms Deeley said that the standard of cleaning throughout the kitchen area of the hotel was extremely poor and the shelf-life of cooked high-risk ready-to-eat foods was not controlled or monitored on the date. No safe and proper system of waste management was in place.
Her findings included: rusty food-mixing equipment; an accumulation of grease and condensation on ceiling panels; missing and badly-repaired wall tiles in numerous areas; and an accumulation of dirt in several areas throughout the kitchen.
She also told of finding a large cooking pot which was in use at the time and which had a layer of a congealed grimy substance around its rim. A refuse skip in the back yard was in a filthy condition and a missing panel exposed an accumulation of smelling, putrefying waste. Foul-smelling effluent was leaking from the skip.
Ms Deeley said she had been alarmed that the hotel had no system in place to eliminate hazards which had the potential to cause harm to the public. She admitted that "enormous structural improvements" had since been carried out, but she still had concerns in relation to the shelf-life of ready-to-eat foods.
The court was told that defects in the hotel had been ongoing from a previous year and the prosecution had followed the issuing of the usual warning notice.
Another environmental health officer, Mr Shane Keane, informed the court that catering and hygiene arrangements were in order at the hotel when he inspected the premises during the busy Ballinasloe Horse Fair on September 30th last.
Mr Gearóid McCann, solicitor for Haydens Hotel Holdings Ltd, said that his clients very much regretted and apologised for the condition their premises had been found in on the date in question.
He said that the senior management of the hotel group had not been informed immediately of the problems in Ballinasloe, but they had since worked very hard to put the premises in order.
Mr McCann said that a great deal of money had been spent and he assured the court that any outstanding matters would be dealt with immediately.
Judge Terence Finn said that the hotel was a well-known and reputable place and the court could do nothing about its lost reputation. It was now up to the hotel to provide standards of excellence in the future which would attract new customers as well as those whose custom they had enjoyed in the past.
Imposing fines of €1,250 on each of six summonses as well as a total of €1,200 in costs, Judge Finn said he was taking into consideration the fact that "they had put their hands up". Noting that there were still some areas of concern at the hotel, he warned that further offences could lead to it being shut down. He said that the situation could be summed up as "a lot done, but more to do".